Tim Hebert, CEO of Atrion Networking Corp., had a problem. He couldn’t find enough qualified employees to meet the needs of his growing business.
So, he decided to train them himself.
Hebert estimates the company invested between $12,000 to $15,000 for each of 13 people recruited to learn the technical skills needed to service his customers. For six months, the members of Atrion’s first apprenticeship program went to “school” at the Warwick-based company from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
“It was really hard to find enough good people – either they had the technical skills and didn’t have the soft skills – or they had the soft skills but not technical skills,” said Hebert, who has been developing the program over the last three years. Atrion did 90 percent of the training internally, including using a full-time trainer, he said.
Atrion isn’t alone among local technology firms in struggling to find qualified workers.
Some bring in people to do the training while others, like Atrion, have put internal training programs in place.
Even with institutions like the New England Institute of Technology in East Greenwich and the Community College of Rhode Island, Atrion still found it worthwhile to make a more than $150,000 training investment to fill entry-level positions.
“What we found [is] the technical skill level with those programs [isn’t enough],” Hebert said, when asked whether graduates of the IT Boot Camp – a 15-week program funded through the Governor’s Workforce Board of Rhode Island – were sufficiently trained to work at Atrion.
“They don’t get the people where they need to be fast enough or to a technical level that’s high enough so they can work within our account base,” Hebert said. “If we did more work in basic computer-type stuff, they’d probably be very good candidates … but we really need people that are a year beyond their skill level.”
Hebert’s complaints resonate with many local technology firms looking to recruit.
“It’s very difficult. Honestly, we [have to] look regionally.” said Trish Arling, who has been the recruitment manager for Lighthouse Computer Services for six years. She said the company brings in between five to 10 people a year and the time it takes her to fill a position on average increased from 44 days in 2007 to 66 days last year, which she attributes to there not being enough people “at the level” Lighthouse needs. “I think there are not enough companies [in Rhode Island] to get that experience in.
Lighthouse has considered a mentorship program for its employees, but the structure of the company isn’t conducive to that, she said.
“It’s not just knowing the technology – it’s being able to speak the technology,” Arling said.
Jim McCooey, president of Smithfield-based Computer Associates Inc., agreed. “We’re definitely having trouble hiring experienced people and even entry-level people that we’re willing to train.
“It feels like people have either given up or are just not interested,” he said, noting a general lack of response from ads. The company would hire four to five people immediately, he said, if they could find the right ones.
Computer Associates’ entry-level employees are people who have just gotten out of college who then go through an in-house, one-year training program. It does not generally recruit out of state, but, McCooey noted, the company hasn’t been more successful with recruiting from Massachusetts or Connecticut than it has been in Rhode Island.
Two other IT-services companies ranked in the top 10 of the 2011 Providence Business News Book of Lists by number of employees also say they’ve developed internal training programs.
Cranston-based Electro Standards Laboratories, which hired six University of Rhode Island graduates in the last six months, embraces the idea of training its employees – “We’ve been doing so for the last 20 years,” said President Raymond B. Sepe Sr. He attributes the company need to train employees to the highly specific nature of its business, rather than a failure on the part of the schools or other programs.
Donald R. Nokes, president of Warwick-based NetCenergy, estimated that his company’s training investment is between $50,000 to $60,000 annually.
“We’ve decided that we need to have a very significant training program instead of thinking that we’re going to be able to go to the market and find the skilled, experienced, certified engineers and technicians that we need,” he said.
NetCenergy, which has hired seven people in the last year, has also stopped trying to hire beyond the entry-level positions; instead, the company is focusing on grooming current employees for increased responsibility.
Many companies look at training their work force as an investment – not only for the quality of employees they’re presenting to their clients, but – generally speaking – the employees appreciate the investment.
“We have been able to retain virtually everyone we’ve wanted to retain for the last 32 years,” Computer Associates’ McCooey said.
Atrion’s first class finished about two months ago. The apprentices were each paid approximately $3,2000 per month in salary and benefits during the training, but could be earning six-digit salaries within five to 10 years at Atrion. Hebert said the next class of 10 to 20 people will start in January; he plans to do the program a couple times a year and looks at it as an R&D investment.
Apprentice Craig Schneider exemplifies that loyalty, saying he wants to stay at the company until his “first retirement.”
Schneider, 39 years old, is part of the 60 percent of the Atrion apprentices who had nontechnical degrees and were unemployed or underemployed. Schneider has an English degree, which he put to use working as a freelance writer, but had to supplement his income with landscape irrigation.
“A year ago, I was laid off in the middle of growing season. I realized I needed to make a change,” he said. After researching his options, he decided that tech was the way to go and went to CCRI for a year but, with no experience, was given the cold shoulder by potential employers.
Other companies have approached Hebert about paying Atrion to train their employees as well, he said.
Atrion created 42 new positions in the last year – 20 of which were entry-level. It has a two-year plan to hire between 80 to 100 new employees – 20 percent of which will come from the apprenticeship program, he said.
“We can’t do this if we’re not growing. That’s been the challenge for the last three years,” he added. •
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